Love Story Office: Block J1 Albany Gardens, 30 Albany Road Port Elizabeth 6001 South Africa Contact details: Elaine: +27 79 444 5666 Website: www.lovestory.org.za
WHO ARE WE
Love Story is a local relief organization, founded by EP Kings Captain Luke Watson and his wife Elaine. Luke and Elaine have the following to say about Love Story.We seek to meet the needs of the destitue to restore hope through feeding schemes,education programmes, distribution and community upliftment. It’s a blessing for us to be able to share Love Story with you. The organization was founded in October 2012. It started as a small group of people who shared the same vision - to meet the needs of the destitue and to restore hope We have grown from a little idea birthed out of the hearts of a few, to a multi-faceted organization that runs a great variety of community upliftment projects, education programmes and feeding schemes. Our teams are made up of volunteers, either full-time or part-time, who are all committed to standing in the gap for a hopeless and destitute generation. We operate everyday of the week based at our office and kitchen premises at the Old Fire House on Albany Road, Port Elizabeth.
FEEDING PROGRAMME
From the outset, Love Story has had a heart for the homeless. Members of our team began walking the city streets late at night. They would go into abandoned buildings to find people in need who they could pray for.They would sit with drunken homeless men on the pavements and speak hope and blessing over them. Relationships were formed with the homeless people they encountered and starting a soup kitchen was a relational progression. We launched our first CITY FEED in February 2013. We fed twenty men on the first night. We had to go looking for them. They came, took their food and went elsewhere to eat it. We did this once a week. A month later we included another night and a month after that we were serving food three nights a week. Over time the crowds grew from twenty men to over one-hundred and fifty men, women and children. CITY FEED now runs five nights of the week and operates from in front of City Hall. We feed up to three-hundred homeless people each night. We aim to reach out to every homeless and hungry person across our city. We now run close on fifteen soup kitchens across the region and serve about 50 000 meals per month.
COMMUNITY UPLIFTMENT
We aim to serve our community in whichever way we can. This sometimes entails some kind of building or renovating. We have in the past renovated underprivileged crèches, rebuilt homes or shacks that burnt down and revamped sections of government hospitals. We also supply furniture and household equipment to those in need. We supply grocery parcels to many families across the city on a weekly basis. These families are in crisis due to poverty, unemployment, HIV/ AIDS or death of a breadwinner. The most desperate of these are child-headed households.
DISTRIBUTION
We collect unused clothing and toys for under-privileged children. Usually we will be informed about a community where there is a need and we will package clothing according to specific ages and genders of the children. We also collect unused items for new moms in the maternity wards. Each hamper is like a ‘baby shower in a bag’, as many of these moms have nothing for their newborns. We collect all baby products such as nappies, wipes, creams, clothing, blankets and soft toys for these hampers. We also make up gift bags of toys for children in the Paediatric Wards and cosmetic bags for patients in the Burns Unit and other wards. These bags consist of soap, creams, toothbrushes and toothpastes, deodorant and other luxury items.
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
We believe that every child deserves equal opportunities in life. Through our Early Childhood Develop Programme Project, we aim to make this possible. Nurturing infants, clothing children and feeding the hungry are just the beginning - in order for children to reach their full potential and education is vital. Our Early Childhood Develop Programme is our doorway of influence into destitute communities. Our teams visit disadvantaged crèches everyday to interact with the children and keep them stimulated. The general state of these children is characterized by HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, extreme poverty, alcoholism and abuse. None receive the educational instruction necessary for their age. We have thus aligned ourselves with various underprivileged crèches in neighboring townships, to assist in educating the staff, to provide resources and to set up well-equipped Early Childhood Develop Programme centers that will be havens for children to grow and learn in.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
We welcome you to get involved in whichever capacity you can. Some may have time to sacrifice, while others may have resources. We rely heavily on volunteers to help serve and minister at our City Feed (week nights from 6pm-7pm) and also at our ECD Playdays (week mornings from 9am-11am). We cannot operate without the generous donations from our supporters. Below is a list of items we usually need: 1. Clothing and shoes (all sizes) 2. Blankets 3. Household furniture 4. Toys and books 5. Baby products e.g. Nappies Our feeding schemes also only operate due to food donations. Below is a list of items we usually need: 1. Dried starch - Rice, Samp, Mielie Meal, Pasta & Bread. 2. Dried Beans and Lentils. 3. Canned Foods. 4. Oil, Salt, Stock.
DONATE As an organisation we incur costs on a daily basis. We would not be able to operate without financial assistance from the public. We pay salaries and rental amongst many other expenses. We appreciate every cent that we are given. You can also donate to Love Story via our page on Global Giving (especially if you are making a donation from overseas).The link is available on our website. BANKING DETAILS Love Story Business Account First National Bank Branch code: 261050 Acc no: 62408595207 Love Story is a registered non-profitable organization. NPO NUMBER: NPO 121-005 PBO NUMBER : 930047374
This booklet and all creative content was done by Jenna Finkelstein. For more information please visit : www.jennafinkelsteinphotography.com Šcopyrighted to Jenna Finkelstein Photography 2015